Grants Pass businessman suddenly finds smooth road to Oregon Senate

Herman Baertschiger Jr., a Grants Pass businessman new to elective politics, has suddenly found that his road to the Oregon Senate is a heck of a lot easier.

Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Central Point, dropped his candidacy Tuesday after saying he wanted to take a break from elective politics and bolster his family's finances. Atkinson insisted that Baertschiger's primary challenge didn't have anything to do with it, but that wasn't the story I was hearing from some Salem insiders gathered to watch Tuesday evening's filing deadline.

As one lobbyist told me, Atkinson was told that he had alienated some of the Republican base and that Baertschiger was posing a potentially tough primary challenge.

That wasn't the end of the story. When he bowed out, Atkinson said he was encouraging freshman Rep. Wally Hicks, R-Grants Pass, to run for the Senate. And, in fact, Hicks' chief of staff, Allison MacMullen, told the Medford Mail Tribune Tuesday that her boss would run for the Senate.

But, in the end, Hicks decided to stay put in his House seat. Baertschiger said he talked to Hicks Tuesday about the race and it was clear by the end of the conversation that Hicks would stay put in the House. Why?

"Wally's only been in our community for four years and I've been here for 34 years," said Baertschiger, the owner of a local company involved in a variety of forestry operations, including fire fighting.

Whatever his reasons, Hicks decided to opt for the surer thing. However, he does face a primary race against Jack Swift, who, like Hicks, is a Grants Pass attorney.

The Democrats did manage to get a candidate,
James
Diefenderfer, to file at the last minute (almost literally, the filing was at 4:58 p.m., two minutes before the deadline). Diefenderfer is a retired Northrup Grumman manager and chairman of the Josephine County Democratic Party. He'll have a tough uphill battle in the heavily Republican district, but at the least the Democrats will force the GOP to spend some money defending the seat.

Baertschiger was planning to drive up to Salem Wednesday to drop off his Oregon Voters' Pamphlet statement and make the rounds. He hadn't been able to raise much money for his own campaign before Tuesday (besides a $10,000 loan from himself). One suspects that will change Wednesday as the lobbyists learn how to pronounce his name.